“Access point found. Origin unknown. Unregistered. Stabilizing . . . preparing for upload.”
The lights began to slow and flicker. The speed of the force soon came to a halt. All was suddenly quiet once more. The lights within the chaos would only streak in jagged angles allowing the glowing circuits to shine, breaking the darkness momentarily. With each streak of light, something could be seen in the darkness. At first glance, it appeared to be just an abnormality, a void in the digital space. With a closer look, a humanoid figure could be seen. The black figure stood stationary within the silent chaos. Another streak lit the darkness and caught the glimpse of something swaying. It appeared to mimic a distortion in the Zero Zone, but with greater focus, it seemed like black silk, blowing silently within cyber space.
The figure reached into the darkness with its slender arms. Sparks then lit from its fingertips as the Zero Zone burst with light.
“Preparations complete. Link established. Upload commencing.”
* * *
[January 6th - Washington D.C. - Cyber Research Plant - Day]
Dr. Richard stood dumbstruck at the giant screen before him. A mixed look of fear and astonishment was written all over his face. A dozen computer terminals were being occupied by several Tech Agents as they blazed over their keyboards. The transparent keys lit the people’s faces a fluorescent teal color as their fingers dashed with all the speed that was humanely possible.
The door behind Richard slid aside to produce a woman donning the same attire as he. Her long, strawberry blonde hair waved as she brushed it behind her back. Had she actually used makeup to cover the bags under her eyes, she would have looked to be in her twenties.
Richard’s expression eased a bit when his eyes met hers. “Not like you to be late. Did you just wake up?”
Richard’s joke fell on deaf ears as the woman brushed him aside. “I don’t have time for your idiotic prattle.” She turned her attention to the people before her as she stared at the giant screen. Her eyes fixed on the current blinking dot at the center of the monitor.
“Have we found Lambda yet?”
“We have,” responded one of the Tech Agents. “It appears that it has managed to find an unregistered device for an Exit Port. We need to go through several back doors to gain access to a portable device, and cut it off from the all potential servers. Its age isn’t helping our endeavor.”
Richard stepped forward. “Where and what is the Exit Port?”
“Washington County. Abingdon. The device seems to be an old smartphone, manufacturing date: 2011.”
Richard turned to the woman now staring at the screen with unwavering eyes. “What is our move, Karen?”
Karen didn’t take long to give a reply. Her tone felt alarmingly calm and collective. “Alert the Core HQ. Inform them that we have located the Corruption.”
“Understood,” came the resounding reply of all Tech Agents. Richard, on the other hand, was the only one not too keen on the decision.
“What are you thinking?! If you alert the Core HQ, they will surely assign the World Moderators, and we both know what that means. The Director would-”
“The Director already gave me clearance.”
Richard stood frozen.
“We must contain Lambda at all costs. That is our number one priority.” Karen didn’t break her gaze. She was like a statue, cold and unmoving.
Richard’s eye twitched. “And what happens when the God Mods materialize into the physical world to capture the Lambda unit? Those things are just mindless AI with ruthless killing intent towards anything labeled as a Corruption.”
Richard didn’t have much time to recover as what Karen said next rattled him far worse.
“Class ‘S’ God Mods shouldn’t have a problem sealing Lambda’s movements quickly. Class ‘S’ is normally only used for military operation in Cyber Warfare and stealth operations, but with this, the collateral damage should be minimal.” Karen’s voice was cold and calculating.
Richard took a step back. He was shaking. “The Last Class ‘S’ God Mod AI that was deployed took out an entire city Mainframe in under a minute, plunging the city into widespread chaos. You sent one of those monsters to retrieve the Lambda unit?”
Karen turned to her husband. Her eyes almost seemed hollow. “No. I sent five.”
* * *
[January 6th - Abingdon, Virginia - Horizon Academy - School Rooftop - Day]
Zack laid spread eagle on the concrete floor of the school rooftop just staring at the sky. The lack of clouds always made him feel relaxed as he could just gaze into the open blue. There was just something majestic about the open sky that brought him peace. To him, it just felt like a giant canvas that he could do anything with.
This was his favorite pastime while in between classes. Such tranquility was soon completely ruined by the sudden blaring of music in Zack’s pocket. With aggravation plaguing his face, Zack reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. The phone seemed to be skipping all over his library of music and couldn’t decide what song to play without him touching it at all. It was the price he paid for having something with such an old manufacture date.
“What, did my parents’ message fry its processor?” he joked, rolling his eyes.
Zack sighed, holding down the button at the top and waiting for the device to reset... at least that was what he thought was going to happen. Instead, the music on his phone started getting rather distorted and the screen became all scrambled too. Confused, Zack sat up to a sitting position and glanced at the device intently.
“That’s odd. It has never gotten this bad before. What’s wrong?” The phone continued to jump and skip through songs, still distorted and scrambled, as Zack tried to fiddle with the reset button.
Guess I will just have to take it apart again.
A sharp pain suddenly jolted up Zack’s arm. Alarmed, Zack rose instantly, flinging the phone in a random direction. The pain was like nothing he had ever felt. It was like his arm had been set on fire and then stricken with pins and needles. He stumbled and crashed to the ground only to glance over at the device that caused him such terrible pain. What he saw didn’t seem real.
The phone was surrounded by a torrent of electricity. Sparks were shooting all over as the device seemed to be overloading with energy. The little rectangle was dancing at the center of this chaos and looked to be ready to explode from all the pressure coursing around it.
“What the hell is going on?”
Zack slowly took to standing as the light show continued. He was just far enough away that sparks emitting from the phone couldn’t reach him. Even so, the display seemed so alluring.
In that moment, something changed. The device was suddenly sucked inward, creating a black ball. The ball pulsed with the energy left from the device as it slowly began to grow. Frightened by this new abnormality, Zack took several steps back in fear that this black ball would suck him in.
It is so dark.
The ball seemed to peer into nothingness itself as it continued to grow to about six feet in diameter. As the ball began eating into the rooftop, Zack starting wondering if it was a good idea to be standing where he was.
What is this, a black hole? Is this really happening?
Many thoughts raced through his mind as the black ball radiated with electric energy, pulsing with wrath. It just seemed to be sucking him in.
“Conditions met. Upload finalizing.”
Zack’s mind jolted awake. Was that just now-
The black ball exploded. The sudden force sent Zack flying backwards before rolling to a stop. He quickly recovered as his curiosity couldn’t let him miss what was unfolding before him. What he saw was incredible.
Before him, emitting small sparks of red lightning, stood a girl dressed in a slick battle suit. The suit seemed to hug and accent every curve of the slender but toned frame that befell Zack’s eyes. Her long, dark hair danced in the pulsing energy surroun
ding her like some wild lightning storm. Two shorter, braided locks of her hair swayed and hugged her chest and clavicle. She was gorgeous.
Zack couldn’t take his eyes off of her. She was utterly mesmerizing in her obscure outfit. Her face was half covered by a black visor that blocked out her eyes and nose that took the shape of a “V”. The visor formed pointed sickles that angled downward sharply at the ends of the glimmering visor, caressing her cheeks. Gazing intently, she hovered in place with her arms spread out and her head cocked upward, looking at the sky.
Zack stared, bewildered. He didn’t understand what was happening. In his shocked state, he could only let out a small whisper of the first thing he thought when gazing upon this dark goddess.
“Who is this girl?”
The girl’s arms fell to her side and her head returned to its normal position. It was as if she heard Zack’s question as she moved to speak. She only spoke three words.
“Lambda, materialization complete.”
[2]
Stigma
[January 6th - Abingdon, Virginia - Horizon Academy - School Rooftop - Day]
Zack was still in awe. The sight of the dazzling girl before him was unlike anything he had ever seen before.
Is this a Combat AI unit? Zack thought, still in a daze.
There was always talk in the Cyber Network and on the Internet about advanced Artificial Intelligence—Combat AI units, but Zack had never been given the chance to ever see one up close like this. He was convinced that what stood before him was exactly that.
Without thinking, he rose to his feet and slowly began to approach the girl coated in black and surging with red sparks. He didn’t get far.
“Biological detected. Appear, Chaos Weapon 12: Trident Sickle.”
Without warning, the girl dashed toward Zack with her arm extended. In mere milliseconds she covered twenty feet and thrust her arm toward Zack’s face. Three blades quickly materialized from a void of blackness in a triangle formation around the girl’s wrist just as her hand reached Zack’s face. Frozen with stone cold fear, Zack only stared as he eyed the three blades hovering over the girl’s wrist, spinning in clockwise rotation. Zack’s head was almost wiped blank from shock. He only could register one thought from the sudden development.
Crap!
As quickly as the scene advanced in front of him, the three blades vanished into the air. This didn’t make Zack any less tense.
“Threat level zero. Disengage Chaos Weapon. Now entering neutral state.” Her voice was devoid of any emotion, as she spoke in a flat, mechanical manner. Her presence almost felt suffocating.
Zack somehow managed to break out of his state of fear and astonishment and tried to take in what was happening around him. With a few deep breaths, he finally got up the nerve to ask the one question on his mind.
“W-who are you?”
The girl turned her head to face him rather suddenly. He couldn’t see her eyes behind her black visor, but he felt as if he was naked. She just stood where she was, silently staring at him.
“H-hey, did you hear me-”
“Target identified. Mission objective met.”
Come again? Zack stared, bewildered, as the girl fully faced him.
“AI Combat Prototype Lambda 11, Serial Number: L11212126. Target clearance given.” The girl then just stood there, staring down Zack. “Awaiting next mission directive.”
Zack just stared with his mouth agape. Next mission? Come again?
Nothing but a torrent of questions ran through his head. He couldn’t process one fast enough before another one popped up. What was he supposed to do? Why was this thing asking for a new mission? And most importantly, what was it doing here?!
“Right . . .” Zack kept his eyes on her, still feeling incredibly confused. Any reason and logic was lost to him. He couldn’t come up with anything that made enough sense to handle the situation before him. He just fumbled around a quick idea and went with it. He was far too flustered to think straight anyway.
“I . . . I guess you are done?” Zack was completely unsure in his words, as he formed them into a question rather than a statement. Did that make any sense?
Lambda broke Zack’s thoughts. “Voice recognition accepted. Pleas-”
Zack stood, surprised once more, as he noticed that the AI Lambda suddenly seemed confused.
“Lambda doesn’t understand. What does human mean by, ‘You are done?’ An explanation is needed for proper data entry.”
Zack found himself at a loss for words. Did an AI just ask me a question?
There was something odd about Lambda. Zack couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but he felt like she was acting and processing data differently than most AI units he had heard and read about. It seemed too autonomous.
Zack shook his head. This was getting him nowhere. He had to press forward if he hoped to gain any sight into this singularity before him.
“Your name is Lambda right?” He was shocked how calm his voice ended up sounding.
“Name? What is a name?” The girl was so straightforward that it seemed more like a joke.
Zack’s expression was deadpanned. Seriously? He ignored it and moved on.
“What you call yourself, that is your name.”
Lambda seemed to ponder this response for a little while before speaking. “Then the proper name would be AI Combat Proto-”
Zack raised his hand. “Stop.”
Lambda tilted her head, seeming confused by the gesture. If Zack could see her eyes, he thought for sure she would be cocking an eyebrow or something.
“How about just Lambda, okay? Sounds simple enough right?”
“L-A-M-B-D-A,” replied Lambda. She seemed oddly satisfied.
Zack couldn’t believe the conversation he was having. It scared him how calm he was starting to feel after talking to Lambda. Deep down, he knew his calm nature was directly linked to the familiarity of the situation. He ignored the pinching sensation in his head and focused on the matter at hand.
“Right, my name is Zack. It is a pleasure to meet you, Lambda.” Zack winced at his own words. He sounded too formal, and it made him feel idiotic.
Something is wrong with me, Zack thought, feeling a little nervous now.
Lambda followed up with another simple question. “Zack, how much do you weigh?”
Taken back by the odd question, Zack responded unsure. “I believe just under 170 pounds. Why?” he asked hesitantly.
Zack got his answer just seconds later. Lambda arched her body and dashed toward him. With a simple tug of his school uniform, she threw him across the school roof with all the love of a rhinoceros. Stunned by this act, Zack only waited for the bone-crushing pain that would come once he smashed into the ground. Before he hit solid ground however, a giant explosion ripped the area of the roof apart where Lambda and Zack were just standing. He then swiftly crashed to the roof. The pain was far worse than he expected, but not worse than the elevated situation. Things looked like they were escalating to a whole new level.
“Enemy target identified. Activating Zero Barrier,” echoed Lambda.
Hold on, did she just-
Just then, a ripple in the sky appeared and spread out above the school rooftop. It almost seemed like a mirage of some kind. The disturbance made no noise and distorted the space it crossed for just a second. The haze-like display panned out about twenty yards before disappearing into the sky, leaving Zack to only dread what was coming. Had there been no distractions, he would have noticed the muted sounds from beyond the rippling sky while everything within remained unaltered.
Zack’s ears were still recovering from the explosion, but that didn’t stop him from hearing more voices along with Lambda’s. They almost sounded malicious despite the robotic frequency used to vocalize their words. As Zack looked to the source of the voices, he stared in disbelief.
“Oh god . . . they are multiplying?!”
Hovering above
the rooftop with their arms crossed, five dark figures floated in place. They were covered in metallic armor from head to toe and their faces were completely sealed away by a full face visor. Reflecting the morning sun, their armor glimmered of black and gold. The sight slightly blinded Zack. When he got a better look at them, he found their appearance to be similar to black diamonds.
“Corruption target analysis complete. Initializing Combat Mode. Commencing attack,” spoke one of the black entities.
Zack cringed. “What I would give to have these things disappear right now,” he uttered under his breath. Fear was creeping up his spine like a venomous spider. What floored him further was what Lambda did next.
“Command acknowledged. Threat level thirty one percent. Appear, Chaos Weapon 26: Executioner. Now engaging.”
It was spectacular. Zack could barely follow what was happening. In less than a second, Lambda sprung from the rooftop and smashed into one of the hostile AI units. When Zack looked closer, he could see that Lambda had deployed a much larger weapon then the one he had seen previously. The weapon’s blade was double the width of Lambda’s arm and had a row of bladed teeth on both sides, like a chainsaw. The monstrous weapon rested in the gut of the black AI unit in front of her. With an effortless flick of her wrist, she flung the AI she pierced behind her as if it weighed less than a piece of paper. Seconds later it exploded into billions of black bits. The display was mesmerizing.
Lambda turned in the direction of the remaining AI units. “Enemy numbers reduced. Four targets remaining.” Her voice remained cold and robotic.
Zack couldn’t help but feel a sense of terror amidst his fascination. After all, Lambda was taking out high end Combat AI units from what Zack could tell. From their design and presence, he got the impression that what Lambda was doing was nothing short of unbelievable.
The Genesis Code 1: Lambda Page 3